


In another life

by fallsfromgrace



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Canon Compliant, Confessions, F/M, One Shot, Post-War, Reincarnation, Zutara Week 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:42:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25652287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fallsfromgrace/pseuds/fallsfromgrace
Summary: Zuko, now old and retired from his Fire Lord duties, decides to pay a visit to old friends. When he meets Katara again after many years, a love confession ensues.
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 16
Kudos: 73
Collections: Zutara Week 2020





	In another life

**Author's Note:**

> My submission for Zutara Week 2020, Day 7: Rebirth.
> 
> There are many songs I associate with Zutara, but for this one fic in particular, it's "The One that Got Away" by Katy Perry. Enjoy!

_I think I knew you in another life._

The thought used to occur to him in his youth, though he never dared to say it aloud. Not to her. They were friends at best; ones who complemented one another in battle and stood by each other’s side while facing their biggest challenges. No more than that. Fate was never generous enough to allow it.

Zuko’s youth has long left him, and he has retired from the position of Fire Lord. His downtime is aplenty, so in the name of spontaneity and for old times’ sake, he decides to pay separate visits to old friends. The ones that remain, at least.

Despite living in the era of telephones, they still do things the old-fashioned way. He sends each of them a messenger hawk three days in advance to notify of his visit. One to Toph in the Foggy Swamp, and one to Katara in the South Pole. This is as spontaneous as he can get in his old age.

He visits her last, journeying straight from Toph’s reclusive living place in the swamp the next day. It’s a long journey, and hints of dusk are beginning to tinge the sky when she welcomes him. He dismounts Druk ungracefully, unable to take his eyes off of her. She is 85 and he 87, but how _young_ he feels when he sees her familiar face.

“Hi, Katara,” he says as he comes in. They hug, and it lingers for a while. The occasion grants it, and he silently thanks Agni for it. “Hello, Zuko.” They walk through her empty living room out to a small open space behind her house to chat, and it feels like old times.

Years’ worth of stories come spilling out as they sit under a wide array of stars. He tells her all about life as a Fire Lord and raising his daughter Izumi. She tells him about what it’s like to teach Avatar Korra waterbending and take care of three children in the absence of Aang. They cry. They laugh. They sit through lapses of nostalgic silence.

“Anyway, it’s a shame we can’t reunite properly together yet. I guess we all drifted too far apart in our old age,” he says light-heartedly, referring to him, Toph, and Katara living in three different places and having conflicting schedules.

She gives him a small smile. “I guess so. I keep thinking about how nice it would be to be together again. All of us. Suki, Sokka, Aang,” the last name she says is followed by an exhale. As if saying it took something out of her. A heavy silence descends upon them, and suddenly there is nothing—yet everything—to say all at once.

His heart seems to beat several hundred times before he musters the courage to look at her. “Katara, did you ever…” he trails off, looking for the right words. They seem to escape him. He looks down as he lets out a nervous laugh, and continues. “You know, it’s funny. I never told you this. It started out as a small crush when we were young, but I think I’ve always held a place for you,” he finishes, trying to keep a casual tone.

There was hesitancy in the word _place_. He could feel her curious eyes on him, and the question is out of his mouth before he could stop it. “Did you love Aang? I mean, of course you did, I’ve seen you two. But… did you ever think of me?”

The question is met with the widening of her eyes. She seems to ponder on it as he silently curses himself, his face heating up. _Stupid_ , he thinks. _That was the worst question you could’ve asked_. Although a part of him is relieved; it has been in the back of his mind for years. It didn’t bother him often (Katara was always out of sight, out of mind when he had a nation to rule and a family to take care of), but it was still a nagging, small curiosity. It was like wondering if that one teenage crush ever liked you back.

Except they had been through a war, and it was more than that. He was once the face of the enemy for her, but she still touched it, offering to heal the scar that marked him. He stood by her when she faced her mother’s killer, as did she when he faced his sister on the edge of madness. He almost died for no one else but her. Did any of it mean something? Thinking of the fact that they were lucky enough to still be alive together to have this moment was what made him throw caution to the wind.

Finally, she looks at him. Her fingers instinctively fiddle with her betrothal necklace, and if he feels a small pang of jealousy, he doesn’t show it. “I did love Aang. As a best friend, as someone who’s been through a war with me, and as a partner. An equal. I loved him in all the ways you’re supposed to love someone you decide to marry,” she says, carefully choosing the words.

For a while, he thinks she’s finished answering the question, and he might just drop dead from shame right then and there. But she continues. “He was one of those people, you know? Larger than life. Sometimes, I looked at him and he was too much for me to comprehend. He was many great souls combined into one, and he was never mine first. He belonged to the world.” At that moment, Katara’s mind goes to the time Aang had to delay his first trip back to the South Pole with her and Sokka after the war ended to help Zuko with spirit-related problems in the Fire Nation. _Nothing to be sorry about. It just comes with dating the Avatar_ , she'd said.

A breeze rustles past, and he chills as he imagines Aang’s presence looming over them, somehow. He loved him like his own brother, and in that moment, he misses him. He misses him terribly. The kind, free-spirited boy who balanced out the girl of turbulent waters sitting across from him. Of _course_ he was always happy for both of them. Katara is thinking of him, too. She rises and slowly looks up at the stars. Zuko follows. Under the inky-black sky, their hands intertwine.

“It’s one of life’s greatest gifts, to be able to love more than one person,” she starts. “I’ve always had strong feelings for you. Hate, but eventually something else. It was overwhelming, and I knew our destinies didn’t cross paths. There was no place for us, and I’m happy to have lived my life the way I did. I believe you do, too. But in those moments when love waned, as they often do when you’ve been with someone for a long time, I thought of you. More times than I dared to count. You will always be my biggest what if, Zuko.”

She turns to look at him imploringly as if to say, _I hope this is enough. I can’t give you more than that._ Thoughts were racing in his mind, rendering him speechless—love letters he wrote in his youth and never intended to send because another boy had already given her the world. What could _he_ give that she didn’t already have? He has held a place for her for too long. One particular letter he wrote in his journal repeats in his mind.

_Funny how fate mocks us, Katara. I’ve seen you from afar; understood you from up close. We’ve always circled one another in a strange dance. You weren’t supposed to pull me in, but you did. The moon resides in you. Your strength is as silent as simmering rage, bubbling just under the surface before anyone realizes how hard it will hit them. I could only hope to unravel the entirety of you in one lifetime; my past life decided I must know you again in another. But here we are again, and it ends like this._

Zuko says nothing. He doesn’t say that he hopes to meet her again in another life, as this one is drawing to a close. In the stretch of silence between them, she understands. They are no longer young, and there is so much left unsaid yet nothing more to say. All he does is turn to hug her, and they embrace for what feels like forever. The good kind of forever: it’s not enough, and it never will be, but it makes you feel whole just the same.

She is the first one to break up their hug and look him in the eyes. “Stay the night, will you? Or the whole week. I could use the company. Besides, in the letter you promised you’d cook some komodo chicken for me,” she says, and he thinks he can hear pleading in her tone.

She didn’t need to plead, or even ask. After all these years, he still jumps at any opportunity to stay close to her. As close as she’ll allow him. He smiles thinly. “Spend a week with the woman I’ve loved all my life and cook for her? I don’t know. I’ll have to think about it.” The comment earns him a light punch on his ribcage. They head back inside, his arm around her keeping both of them warm.

For now, this should be enough.

__

Two best friends sit together, content in their shared silence. That’s all they are to one another: friends, at least for now.

The girl has hair the color of coal and eyes of glowing embers. These features used to signify that a person was from the Fire Nation, an identity that no longer exists in a united world. The boy next to her was of water. His eyes are royal blue, as fathomless as Challenger Deep. Every time she looks into them, she can’t help but think, _I knew you in another life_. _We found each other again, somehow_. 

In her mind she makes up stories about them: she was once a Fire Nation crown prince and he a brave waterbender master. Not much has changed about him. Not much has changed about _them_.

She resolves to tell him, to confess a love that’s entirely too big, too heavy to contain alone. They could be more than this… right? She has the feeling that they owe it to their past lives.

Later, later. Someday. Perhaps never, not in this one. She is nothing if not patient. For now, they sit and watch as the sun disappears to make way for the moon. This should be enough.

After all, their dance is eternal. They have all the lifetimes in the world.


End file.
